Valentine’s Day always seems to sneak up on me. January feels so long and then all of a sudden… boom! It’s half-way through February and Valentine’s Day is next week. So, no-prep kindergarten Valentines day activities is a must have, and today I have my top 5 kindergarten Valentine’s day activities!
Kindergarten Valentines Day Activities for Reading
I always love simple social stories and emergent readers, so I made this Valentine’s Day emergent reader that explain different ways that people celebrate Valentine’s Day, from making cards, giving hearts, flowers, candy, or gifts, or by being a kind friend.
At this point in Kindergarten, my students are often in very different places in reading and so I like to have two different versions of books they can read. One version has a bit more details about connecting why we celebrate Valentine’s Day – to show other’s we care. I like bringing it back to that reason. The other version is more simple and focuses on the different ways that people can celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Kindergarten Valentines Day Craft
Kids always love making crafts and activities, but I have how involved some of the crafts out there are! No-prep is the only way I can handle a craft. Is it just me? So I made this Necklace Decoration page for my students because everything they needed is right on the page! They start with just a simple heart and then they can either cut out some of the Valentine’s Day symbols, or they can make their own! When they are done, they just cut out their heart, hole punch it, and then I give them some string to tie it together. And just like that, my kids loved making a kindergarten valentines day craft, and it took very little effort to set it all up for them. Win-win!
Kindergarten Valentines Day Activities for Math
On Valentine’s Day I usually like to let kindergarten valentines day activities take over the day, but within our normal school schedule. I don’t like to change our routine completely, because I find that it dysregulates the children and it just ends up being exhausting. So, we have fun, but within our normal school schedule and routines! So what do we do for math? We play Heart Race!
Heart Race
Heart Race is a fun way to practice number decomposition. Children take a number card or the mat with multiple numbers and then they roll the dice. They won’t be able to fill up the whole board with one roll, so they have to figure out how they want to split up their roll. For example, if they roll a 4, they could put 4 down on the card with 7 and then hope for a 3 next roll. Or they could put 2 and 2 somewhere they only need 2 pieces left. The goal is to fill up all their hearts before their partner (or just to fill them up if they are playing by themselves).
I like that some of the cards have ten frames to use a strategy to break apart the numbers more and visualize the number quickly. There is also a version with just the exact number of dots needed to fill up the number. The kids need different supports, so these different cards can support them where they are. The numbers go from 7-14, but there is also a version with 0 to 6 so that the students who need more one-to-one correspondence support can still participate.
Valentine’s Day Counting
I also love having out different sheets for my students to practice counting to 100, one of our big math standards for the year. (Psst… this is an easy work sample to keep as evidence for that standard!) There are three version of Valentine’s Day counting to support the different skill levels of my students and making sure that everyone can participate! Students can fill in a chart that has random numbers filled in. This helps keep them on track, because each row has a way to check if they are on the right number. Students can also fill in just the fives and tens columns on the hundreds chart or they can choose the version where they have to count by 2s to fill in the missing numbers. And obviously the missing numbers are hearts!
Kindergarten Valentines Day Activities for Writing
Valentine’s Day is all about love, so I always try to give my students a chance to write about what love means to them! In the form of a pattern book, children fill in the end of sentences about different things they love. For example, I love to play ___, or I love to eat _____. It also encourages more thoughtful answer like I love ___ and love means ____. I also included the prompts about family like I love when my mom ____ or I love when my dad ____ (or I love when my family ____ for children who might not have a mom or dad or have a complicated family structure). It’s important to know our students and decide what pages are best for them and which ones to leave out, which is easy to do!
Children finish the sentences and then draw the picture to match. It mimics a lot of the books that they are reading. A great connection so reading is to give them this book back to keep in their book bags so they can read over and over again!
Kindergarten Valentines Cards
Often teachers feel like they have to do all these things to make an activity engaging, but I’ve found over the years that simpler is usually better. Near Valentine’s Day, I put out some blank construction paper and I put out some phrases they might want to use (and I know they will ask me how to spell). For example, “Happy Valentine’s Day!” or “Thanks for being my friend!” Then children can create their own cards. They don’t need me to cut out a bunch of things for them – they are far more creative than I am and they have their own ideas for making cards. It takes the pressure off of you, the teacher, and let’s the children be more creative! Win-win! Plus, it’s great for kids who may have forgotten or weren’t able to make valentines cards for the class.
Bonus Kindergarten Valentines Day Activities – Coloring Pages!
Kids always love coloring! Simply changing up the coloring pages to be on theme for Valentine’s Day is often enough to put kids in the spirit! And bonus- all I have to do is make some copies! I love a good win-win!
Conclusion
Valentines Day activities for kindergarten doesn’t have to be a big production and it definitely shouldn’t stress you out planning for! These simple no-prep activities are just the thing that you need to bring some fun into your Valentine’s Day, while still practicing important academic skills and keeping the daily routines the same. Which activity do you love doing with your students or are you excited to try this year? Let me know in the comments!
